Friday, January 28, 2011

What consumer product *besides* building blocks does Lego manufacture more of than any other company in the world?

Image via WikipediaA mere 53 years ago today -- Jan. 28, 1958 -- the Danish toy company Lego patented their design for interlocking plastic building blocks. In the intervening decades, the Lego brick has become arguably the most popular brand of building block in history, as the company has produced some 400 billion Lego blocks, or roughly 62 bricks for every man, woman and child living today.

As a byproduct of this massive success, Lego has also become the world's most prolific manufacturer of another consumer product -- one that almost no one recognizes despite the staggering volume of the product put out by Lego every year.

WHAT CONSUMER PRODUCT BESIDES BUILDING BLOCKS DOES LEGO MANUFACTURE MORE OF THAN ANY OTHER COMPANY IN THE WORLD?

Lego is the world foremost manufacturer of tires, as measured by number of units produced. Lego turns out over 300 million tiny rubber tires for its building kits every year. Thus every time you assemble a moonrover, Batmobile, or Formula One Racer from your collection of Lego bricks, you're outfitting your creation with tires from the top manufacturer on the planet.

While the auto industry consumes about 1.3 billion tires annually, that number is divided between dozens of manufacturers, principally the Big Five of Bridgestone, Continental, Goodyear, Michelin and Pirelli. No single tire concern can match Lego in total units produced, though Lego is very far outside the top five in terms of total physical volume of rubber consumed.

That's no just some industrially intriguing introspection, it's a valuably vulcanized volley of the Truly Trivial.